The Dam Busters (1955)

Entertaining and enjoyable stuff for those of us brought up surrounded by the people who went through WW1 and WW2. I feel I should mention that those people I knew who went through the realities of WW1 and WW2 actually never ever watched war movies, I always had to immediately switch the TV over whenever a war film came on, for both granddads, far too many bad memories.

For those who criticise the special effects, sweets were rationed until 1953, Britain of the early 1950s was struggling with post WW2 austerity. Rationing finally ended in 1954, a year before this film was made. In the early 1950s people were more concerned with things like Tuberculosis and polio, not special effects.

This film is stirring stuff, portraying an uphill battle and a race against time to complete an almost impossible task. I've watched Dambusters many times and find it hugely enjoyable, the music in particular, really pumps you up and sucks the viewer in, while the acting performances are all good, particularly Redgrave as Barnes Wallis.

Gibsons dog ni99er is a bone of contention nowadays amongst those who are concerned with irrelevant minutiae, but that's because there's actually not very much else to worry about nowadays. This I feel would actually be hugely reassuring for those people who fought in the war.

What really struck me when I watched Dambusters recently was that the 19 planes on that mission were actually the only planes over the whole of Europe on that particular clear moonlit night. It was almost a suicide mission because those guys were up against the entire German night defence system, who were very very capable by 1943. Normal bombing operations were considered far too dangerous for that night and the film skips over this pretty smartly during the briefing.

All in all a fitting tribute to a group of very brave men.

Fmovies: With the possible exception of "In Which We Serve," "The Dam Busters" ranks as one of the finest British films about WWII. It is told in a straightforward, semi-documentary manner that keeps the viewer interested until the final credits roll. Yes, the special effects pale when compared to today's computer-generated efforts, but when viewed in the context of the technology available, they still make the point and come as close to reality as possible.

The two leads, Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave really carry the film Todd is superb as Wing Commander Guy Gibson. Straight to to the issue, no frills, and let's get the job done. He immediately takes on the assignment when asked, without being told of the nature of the mission, the nature of the target, or when it will take place. He gathers his crews and begins the grueling and, at times, terrifying training for a job in which no one has been fully briefed.

Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallace is, if I can use the term, absolutely delightful. There is a naiveté about him that at times seems childlike. His character comes across as the brilliant, but at times, absent-minded professor. When we first encounter him in the film, he is doing some experiments at home with the skip-bombing technique that will be used. He is doing this in his backyard with his children and it is almost like a game to all of them. They are just having the most delightful time trying to come with something that will prove quite deadly when perfected. Often talking to himself and seemingly wandering around lost in thought, one of his best lines in the film comes when he tells a representative from the Aircraft Ministry that he will need a Wellington bomber for the early tests. The Ministry official asks him: "What can I possibly tell them that will let them justify you getting a Wellington bomber?" With a perfectly straight face and and air of ingenuousness, Redgrave, as Barnes replies: "Perhpas if you told them I designed it?" Priceless!! Eventually solving one seemingly insurmountable problem after another, the film moves on to the night of the raids. We are waiting, as dusk falls, with the bomber crews out by their planes for the takeoff signal. We see them thunder in at terrifyingly low level over the enemy coast. We are waiting in the communications center with Barnes Wallace and the others for any word over the wireless.

We face the tension as the big Lancasters swing out over the dams and start their bomb runs one at time, being fired on by heavy anti-aircraft fire along the tops of the dams. The excitement when the bombs perform as designed. The ecstatic shouts radioed back to HQ. Then the initial dismay as one bomb after another seemingly fails to breach the dams. Gibson's and Barnes Wallace's disappointment when the dams are still intact. Finally, we see the first rivulet of water and then the torrent as the dams burst wide open and water floods the valleys below.

Barnes Wallace's initial reaction is quiet joy and then grief as he realizes the number of planes shot down and men lost to this mission. His comment that he wouldn't have done this if he realized that so many lives would be lost. This is in stark reaction to the military men who realize the price that must be paid for victory.

The 617 Squadron went on to carry out other special missions in WWII. The book, "The Dam Busters," points out that 617 Squadron had the highest loss rate of men and planes of any RAF bomber squadron. Not s

I plowed through the most recent 5 user reviews of this movie, burrowing past the recitations of historical minutiae and the quibbles about its 50 year old (un)special effects, and thought to myself that everyone missed the point.

Yes, the effects are crude -- the film was made in 19-fricking-54, people! Yes, it gets some of the historical details wrong -- it's entertainment, people! The real point is that it's a fantastic yarn, told with great skill and excitement. When I first saw it (as a teen, before Star Wars) I was glued to the screen. I still am today. And evidently, I'm not alone because in 1977 a certain geeky film maker from Northern California stole a large portion of Dam Busters, mixed in a heapin' helpin' of Hidden Fortress, and peppered it all with a dash of Laurel & Hardy & Flash Gordon, calling it Star Wars.

So I'm giving props where props are due. Don't miss this classic.

The Dam Busters fmovies. In the spring of 1942, the English design engineer, Barnes Wallis, is working on a revolutionary new bomb, capable of breaching Germany's hydro-electric dams. This film, with its unforgettable "Dam Busters March" by Eric Coates, recounts the story of the development of the bomb and the devising of special tactics for attacking Germany's industrial heartland. It is also a tribute to the genius of Wallis and the courage and skill of the men who made the concept work.

The great dams of western Germany, harnessing the energy of the rivers Moehne, Eder and Sorbe, were an important power source for the Nazi war effort. If the dams could be breached, then the loss of electrical energy and the collateral flooding would, it was hoped, cripple German industry and shorten the war.

As the film opens, Wallis is pondering the one central problem associated with bombing a dam. Any explosion in the water (and direct hits on the dam wall are too much to expect) is cushioned by the fluidity, and no structural damage results.

We see Wallis eagerly experimenting in his back yard, surrounded and assisted by his adoring children. His brilliant idea is this - if a bomb can be delivered at the correct shallow trajectory and the right high speed, it will 'skip' along the lake's surface like a pebble on a pond, strike the dam and slide down the wall. A depth-sensitive trigger could then detonate the bomb where it would do maximum damage.

The idea is a daring and imaginative one, and predictably enough, the various government departments are slow to see its merit. Wallis spends many disheartening hours waiting to speak to unsympathetic civil servants. In a lovely piece of ironic humour, a Whitehall mandarin points out to Wallis the difficulties inherent in obtaining a Wellington bomber for tests, and Wallis quietly suggests that his own role as the creator of the Wellington might be of some assistance.

Wallis is constantly being told that resources are scarce, that the communal effort requires sacrifices, and so forth. There is, he is told, "a very thin dividing line between inspiration and obsession". However, the eccentric genius persists, and eventually Churchill gets to hear of the idea. From that moment on, the project gathers momentum. 'Bomber' Harris, the chief of Britain's Bomber Command, sets up trials. The 'bouncing bomb' is at last a reality.

Major disappointments accompany the trials. The casing of the bomb has to be drastically re-designed, and it transpires that the aircraft will need to approach the dam considerably lower and faster than had been envisaged. The RAF's standard altimeters are useless at heights of 50 feet, and the resulting danger to crews of flying blind at almost zero altitude are unacceptable.

At this point, Commander Guy Gibson, the pilot who will lead the raid, has his own flash of inspiration. The spotlights in a variety theatre give him the idea of two converging light beams, shining downwards from aircraft to water, which will fix the plane's altitude precisely. If this all sounds a little 'Heath Robinson', it is nothing compared to the viewing gadget which is cobbled together to enable crews to align on the twin towers of the dam.

The climax of the film, the actual attack on the German dams, is rather a disappointment. Anti-aircraft tracer coming up from the German defenders is superimposed on the photographic matrix in the most amateurish of ways. The sound of t

I personally went to school in the town where the Raids were monitored from (Grantham) by Wallis and Harris. There is hardly any memorabilia recording this local fact, and no-one would ever know. I know of RAF Scampton too, which I believe has closed down some years ago. For Lincolnshire, the Dams Raid is remembered poignantly, as the 617 Squadron, who now fly Tornados

in Scotland, was formed and trained there. They practised on the Derwent Reservoir near Sheffield, and the Eyebrook Reservoir in Leicestershire.

Sir Barnes Wallis thought in innovative ways, and the fact that this 'far out' idea of bouncing bombs on a lake, actually breached two dams is an engineering marvel. To do so under heavy flak is beating the odds. Wallis and 617 Squadron collaborated again with the Tallboy and Grand Slam 'earthquake' bombs, which destroyed many important railway viaducts and tunnels, as well as sinking the Tirpitz.

Richard Todd, after the film, moved 3 miles from Grantham. Maybe the film was the reason for this.

The film is one of few about RAF Bomber Command, and is a good portrayal of the danger involved. 41% of crew were killed (55,000). After early 1944, the loss rate rapidly decreased, as the Luftwaffe had been destroyed, so from 1940-3 I would guess 60-70% of crew were killed, for the whole campaign. It may be higher. The RAF didn't even know the Germans had excellent radar until early 1942. The film is about team work and working under stress - your immediate future depended on 6 other people. Many things could go wrong along the way. It is also about strong resilience to new ideas. i.e. The RAF could have had jet planes before 1939 if they'd have developed Whittle's ideas in the 1930s, instead of foolishly waiting 10 whole years until 1941. Whittle was then humiliated after the war by forcing him to give all his designs to the Americans, who didn't waste any time in treating the idea as their own.

When I first saw the film, I thought the special effects were weak and I was astonished a bomb bounced in the first place. When older and seeing it again, you can empathise more with the RAF crews and the skill and daring they would need. It focuses on one story line, and does not have American accents mysteriously appearing from nowhere. I think at the time Guy Gibson was about 25. Imagine yourself having that responsibility at 25.

Many of the 'Upkeep' mines that were bounced, completely missed the targets. Certainly for the Eder dam, there was just one mine left, and was dropped in the right place and destroyed the dam in 'one go'. The film gives the impression many were exploded to breach the dam, but actually a single one did the 'job'.

The Germans are never shown, and I would love to have known what they thought seeing this strange sight of bombs skimming the water's surface. I think Spielberg would have enjoyed making this film, but half of it would have been about the Germans. If the dams had been breached six months earlier, when a water pumping system had not been installed, the Germans would have been seriously up the creek with no paddles. The Ruhr Industry would have been unable to function at all. Do not underestimate what hypothetical difference the dams breach could have made to the Germans in their biggest industrial area.

Do women enjoy the film too, or is all the technical wizardry just for the male audience?

Why did Pink Floyd use it in their film 'The Wall'? Carling Black Lab

By God, this is as definitive as a war film gets. It's on every year, and is as much a part of Christmas as getting drunk and Monopoly. Everyone in this Sceptred isle knows the theme to Dam Busters, and it causes more people to stand up and salute than God Save The Queen. It has moustachioed R.A.F boys, politely bespectacled scientists, laughable special effects, and an entirely predictable ending. It's a British institution, and I don't know where we'd be without it. You can keep your devolution and your New Labour, I've got Dam Busters and I'm not bloody budging.